Thomas and the Polar Express
by ThomasZoey3000
Summary: One night, Thomas awakes to find the Polar Express waiting for him at the junction, is it for real?


_**Thomas and the Polar Express**_

It was Christmas Eve and Thomas was pulling up to the junction with the last passenger train of the day. When he arrived at the junction, he saw a group of kids standing on the platform and talking.

"Did you see it last night?" one of them asked.

"Yes I did," said another one, "I love watching that movie."

"So do I, the Polar Express is an amazing story and I'm glad to see a movie version of the story."

Once the passengers had gotten on board Gordon's express train, Thomas puffed away back to the yards with the coaches. When he arrived, he told Percy and Toby all about what the children were saying.

"Do you think the train is real?" Percy asked.

"I don't think it's real," said Thomas, "from what I do know, it's just a make believe train in a story."

"Well you never know Thomas," said Toby from his engine berth, "it might be real - if you just believe."

Thomas just rolled his eyes, "I doubt it's a real train," he puffed quietly to himself.

After half an hour later, the engine's fires were dropped and the crews had all gone home to spend Christmas Eve with their families. Thomas was the last to fall asleep, "the Polar Express, a real train? Pah, what nonsense," he chuckled quietly as he closed his eyes and went off to sleep.

Suddenly, Thomas awoke to find himself moving out of his shed. "What's going on here?" Thomas asked in shock, "where am I going? Driver? Where are we going?"

But Thomas got no reply - mostly because he had no Driver or fireman in his cab.

"What's going on?" Thomas asked again, "Stop wheels stop!"

Surprising to him, Thomas did stop. He was quite surprised, "I can drive myself? I wish I could've done that before crashing into the stationmaster's house." He then heard a loud whistle in the distance, "they're bound to wake Percy, Daisy and Toby up."

But the three engines didn't wake up, not even when the whistle got louder and louder.

"I should find the source of that whistle and tell them to be quiet," Thomas thought to himself.

And so, Thomas puffed on towards the source of the whistle. He was quite surprised to see that nobody was coming out in anger and shouting for the noise to stop.

Finally though, Thomas arrived at the junction and found the source of the loud whistling.

"Bust my buffers," he exclaimed.

On the tracks for the main line was a very long train. The coaches were painted in blue and had red stripes, and they had boogie wheels, quite like the coaches on Gordon's express. The engine on the front of the train was painted in black, it also had very big driving wheels and on the tender were the words 'The Polar Express'.

"On time Thomas," said the engine, "I was wondering when you were going to show up."

Thomas was confused, "do I know you?" he asked.

"Yes you do," the engine raised her left eyebrow as she looked over to Thomas, "you've been saying that I'm not a real train."

Thomas scoffed, "I still don't believe that the Polar Express train is real. You're probably a replica like other engines do for those 'Day Out with Thomas' events."

"I can assure you dear Thomas that I am indeed the real Polar Express," then she heard a whistle blow several times, "Uh Oh, I must be running late."

The Polar Express engine tried to move the train, but couldn't move it.

"Do you mind giving me a push?"

"Fine," Thomas huffed quietly as he back up towards a set of points. They changed by themselves, which surprised Thomas a bit. Once he was on the main line, Thomas buffered up behind the coaches.

"I thought this train didn't come with buffers," he said out loud as he buffered up. Then he heard a clang, he looked down and noticed that he had been coupled up to the last coach of the train. "What is this?" Thomas asked in surprise.

The Polar Express engine chuckled and then spoke, "you're coming with me young Thomas, I'm going to show you that I am a real train."

"But you can't," exclaimed Thomas, "The Fat Controller would never approve of this."

"Don't worry, I'll have you back in your berth before sunrise." The Polar Express engine blew her whistle loud and long, then with each wheel turn by wheel turn, the Polar Express started away.

Thomas shouted for the train to stop, but they wouldn't, "must keep time, must keep time," puffed the big engine.

"I didn't like being dragged behind a train before and I certainly don't like it now," Thomas groaned.

The Polar Express puffed all around Sodor, then past the Other Railway - none of the diesels shouted at the train, then they puffed on to other destinations that Thomas had never been too before.

At one of the stops, the train came to a stop to take on water.

Thomas was uncoupled and puffed up to the front where the Polar Express engine was. He was about to give the engine a piece of his mind, that was until he noticed that they weren't on railway tracks - they were on a road.

"Now do you believe me Thomas?" the engine asked.

Thomas was in shock, he didn't say a word. Just then they heard a guard's whistle, "Uh Oh, time to go. There's no time for you to go to the back of the train, you'll have to couple up in front of me."

"But you don't have..."

"Buffers? Look down to my front end dear engine."

Thomas looked and gasped, there were a set of buffers on the front of the Polar Express engine, along with chains, quite like Thomas'.

"Now hurry up and couple up Thomas," said the Polar Express engine.

Without being told for the third time, Thomas puffed up in front of the Polar Express, "hold on a second here," Thomas spoke up, "I don't know where to go!"

"I'll tell you where to go, now let's move out!" The Polar Express engine started with a roar, she biffed Thomas' buffers hard and started pushing him along.

"First the trucks push me when I took my first goods train, then a jet engine pushes me and now the Polar Express. I wonder if my brothers and sisters have ever done stuff like this," Thomas groaned quietly to himself.

After so many stops, the train rocketed along on a main line. The wind blew hard into Thomas' face, "yuck," Thomas groaned, "I want to stop! I want to stop!" he cried.

"Not until we've reached the North Pole!" cried the Polar Express engine.

Then Thomas saw something which made his boiler shiver in fear, "if we don't stop..."

"Just hang on tight my little friend," called the engine, "this is going to be fun!"

Thomas gulped in fear as they neared the sight which made him shiver. It was a very steep slide down the mountain side. Thomas closed his eyes, "cinders and ASHES!" he cried as the train started going down the mountain slide.

The train went faster and faster, till they reached the same speed of a jet plane.

"I want to stop, I want to stop!" Thomas cried.

"We'll stop when we get to the North pole," called the Polar Express engine.

After a while, Thomas noticed that the hill wasn't as steep, "that's a relief," he sighed to himself. Then he gasped again as they were getting close to a huge pond covered in nothing but ice. The train's wheels rolled onto the ice, slipped from side to side and poor Thomas nearly tipped over after hitting a hard snowbank.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed as he rolled over another one.

Then there was trouble - there was a cracking, groaning sound coming from the back of the train. The ice underneath the train was beginning to crack.

"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!" panted Thomas, his wheels turned and pulled on the chain which connected him to the Polar Express engine. The engine didn't need telling twice, she sped up her wheels and the two engines puffed and slid on the ice until at last they were back on firm tracks.

"That was too close," sighed the Polar Express engine, "good work there Thomas."

Thomas was out of breath and couldn't say a word. Instead, he used his energy to help pull the train up the next mountain, over a very long viaduct, and into a village with little people running around.

"Thomas," said the Polar Express engine, "welcome to the North Pole."

Thomas gasped, he was amazed by all the sights and seeing the elves walking around and waving to him and the train. Then at last, they reached the centre of the town where lots of elves had gathered. They slowed down to a stop just before a Christmas tree, which was the biggest Thomas had ever seen.

"What are these elves waiting for?" Thomas asked, then he noticed some children walking past them.

"For the same reason these children are here," answered the engine, "they're all waiting for Santa Cluse."

Then they all heard a creaking of doors opening up, and walking out from the biggest building in the village was...Father Christmas! He was cheered to the echo by all the elves, the children, the Polar Express and even Thomas blew his whistle.

"Do you still think I'm not the real Polar Express Thomas? Do you think I'm a make believe engine?"

"No," Thomas answered, "you are the _real _Polar Express, this is all real and so are you."

The Polar Express engine smiled when she heard that. Thomas then noticed Father Christmas coming over to see him, "ah, Thomas the Tank Engine, the world's famous tank engine, it's an honor to see you Thomas."

"Ah...it's nice to see you and meet you too Sir," Thomas said nervously.

Father Christmas then walked up to his cab and placed something inside, then he went back to the front to speak to Thomas, "I want to thank you for helping with the train tonight Thomas, you have been a really useful engine once again."

"Thank you sir."

Father Christmas then went off to speak to the children. After a while, it was time to go. Thomas and the Polar Express engine took the train around a loop and then, once the children were back on board, they puffed off for their homes.

By the time they reached the junction for Thomas' branch line, the little blue tank engine was tried. He was uncoupled and then puffed off back to the sheds.

"Sleep well young friend," smiled the Polar Express engine and with a soft 'peep' on her whistle, the Polar Express puffed away.

When Thomas awoke, he found himself back in the sheds. The engine crews were coming in, "Merry Christmas engines!" they cried. Percy, Daisy and Toby awoke with smiles on their faces.

"Merry Christmas," Percy, Daisy and Toby said in unison.

"Blimey Thomas," said his Driver, "You look like you've been up for a fortnight, are you feeling okay?"

"We did hear you mutter in your sleep last night," said Percy, "were you having a bad dream?"

Before Thomas could say anything, his fireman shouted, "hey look at this!" he came over with a present, "this was inside Thomas' cab", he unwrapped it - revealing a shiny new whistle.

"That's a snazzy looking whistle," said Daisy, "I wonder where it came from."

Thomas just smiled, "so it wasn't a dream," he thought to himself. We know where Thomas got that new whistle, don't we?


End file.
